She may only be two weeks into her new position as community safety and media relations officer with the Perth County OPP, but Const. Laura Brown is certainly not an unfamiliar face in Perth County.

Having worked for the Alzheimer's Society of Perth County from 2003 and 2010, she then trained and worked as a police constable with the Stratford Police Service from 2010 to 2016 before transferring to the Perth County OPP last November. Served as both a frontline officer and crisis negotiator, Brown is well known throughout Perth County.

"To me, working in the community services sector and working in policing is interchangeable - it's working with people. The skill set's very transferrable and it's helpful having a background and a knowledge base in the community services that are available to people, particularly those in crisis," Brown said.

"For me it's been a natural transition."

When the community safety and media relations officer position became available, Brown figured it was a natural next step in her career.

"There are lots of transferrable skills; to be able to network with appropriate service providers, to be a liaison and a link between the community and the Perth County OPP, for sure. Having those networks in place and preserving those networks throughout my professional career has been particularly helpful," she said.

Besides continuing her training for her new role, Brown has spent her first week and a half on the job reaching out to local community partners and talking to the top brass and frontline officers at the Perth County OPP to determine what their needs are and where the OPP can fit in to help meet those needs.

"I've never worked with media before, so this is a new challenge. It's a great opportunity to enhance my skillset," she said.

"There's so much good work being done both in the community and as well as within the Perth County OPP. In my time here, I have observed so much and have seen so many good things and so much good work being done by our frontline officers. So it's really important to be that link in between and I'm excited to see how that unfolds."

Brown said she looks forward to reintroduce to Perth County residents, the OPP's community partners and media as she establishes herself in this new role.